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THE 



EARLY HISTORY 



LONG ISLAND SOUND 



AND ITS 



APPROACHES 



BY 

CHARLES HERVEY TOWNSHEND 

Of " Raynham," New Haven, Conn. 



NEW HAVEN 

TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR, PRINTERS 
1894 






By tranafet 

OOT 20 1915 



/ ^ RECEIVED \ \ 

# JUN 6 J 1911 ^) 

THE EARLY HISTORY 



OF 



LON& ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

By Charles Hervey Townshend, 

Of " Raynham," New Haven, Conn. 



Columbus' successful voyages were followed by the Cabots 
(father and son), who sailed under the patronage of Henry 
YII. of England, on the I^ortlnnen's well known route to 
Yineland, southward from Labrador to Florida ; but we have 
no evidence of their making any land explorations. On their 
return they made a report to the king, which gave England her 
claim to the North American continent. 

Then followed France, eager to get her share of the new 
domain which sent out Juan Florens, or Giovanni, a French 
corsair, and a Florentine, under orders of Francis L, 1524, to 
seek a passage to Cathay. He made the coast of North Amer- 
ica, which obstructed his pas.'^age westward, and which he 
examined and charted, and named Francesca. In his report to 
the French king, on his return in 1525, just after the battle of 
Pavia, he gave an account of his discoveries, naming more than 
fifty harbors and headlands after places in JSTormandy, and 
describing the natives he saw at the entrance of New York 
harbor, eastern entrance of Long Island Sound and Narragan- 
sett Bay, having cast anchor in these places during the summer 
of 1524. 

His discovery embraced a coast line from about Dieppe in 27 
degrees north latitude, shown on map made by his brother ("son 
frere et heritier ") to the R. de la Buelta in 43 north latitude. 



2 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

Harrisses gives us the following translation from Ramnsio, 
vol. iii., fos. 423-426, with a map bearing the inscription La 
Noovo Francia. The discourse is not dated; but Ramusio in 
his introduction says that it was written in the year 1539. — 
'■'■This Coast was discovered 15 years ago hy Giovanna da Yar- 
razzano who tooh possession of the same in the name of King 
Francis and of my Lady the Regent. That Country is called 
French Land hy ma.ny, even hy the l*ortugues themselves!''' 

"The Regent was Louise de Savoie, the mother of Francis 
I., and this seems to account for the inscription both on the 
Maggiolo and Varrazano Maps." 

" Luisa," named for the French king's mother, is an island 
oif the south coast of New England, and Adrian Block, in 
1614, laid it down on his chart. It is now known as Block 
Island. 

Mercator's map of the world gives the globe a flat surface, 
and by his system of projection in proportional parts he locates 
in the right latitude and longitude C. S. St. John (Sandy 
Hook) which is also called, about this date, Cabo de Arenas, and 
Cabo da Malabrigo (Bad Shelter) for the southern part of Cape 
Cod, and he gives the indentation in the coast for Long Island 
Sound, w^iich he names Baia Hondo., which, I am inclined to 
think is the first European name known to navigators ; of this 
important arm of the sea called later by the Dutch " East 
River," a route through which, let me add, now more value 
passes in one direction than over any other water Avay on the 
American coast. 

It is my opinion, based on years of careful study of this 
problem, that during the fifteenth centurj' when European 
navigators were engaged in exploring this section of the coast 
of New England, there was a chain of islands along the coast, 
which we will now locate south of a line drawn from Ply- 
mouth, Massachusetts, to Sandy Hook in New Jersey. They 
were sandy islands, compounded from the retnnant of the Gla- 
cial formation on which Professor Dana of Yale has enlight- 
ened us ; deposits of which here and there cling to rocks for a 
basis. Between them numerous passages had been forced and 
kept open by the flowage of rivers and the movements of the 
tides, making this whole system of islands, Cape Cod, Nauset 



LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 3 

Isle, the Vineyard Islands, Block and Long Islands and others 
adjacent thereto, a continuous chain. Of this we have almost 
positive evidence by the numerous portages and water passages 
across Cape Cod, which Grosnold claims to have discovered in 
1602, but vv^ere known before his day, and visited by the 
numerous iishing vessels (French and English) that frequented 
this coast, and later by the Dutch explorers. Block and his col- 
league Corstensen, who, after completing their voyages of 
exploration, eastward of New Amsterdam, returned in the fall 
of 1614, to Holland, and there reported their existence. 

It is a well known fact that before the settlement of Ply- 
mouth Colony by the Mayflower Pilgrims in 1620, the French 
carried on extensive fisheries about Cape Cod coast ; and jour- 
nals of their voyages (I have been told), are now lying unpub- 
lished in the documentary department of the Record Oflices, 
in the English Channel Islands and western seaport towns of 
France. Champlain, also, had a battle there with the natives. 

Through these island passages, constant communication was 
kept up between Xorth and South Virginia, as is abundantly 
proved by the boat voyage in 1619 of Captain Thomas Dermer 
(a colleague of Captain John Smith), who made a passage 
through Long Island Sound to Virginia, and while exploring 
the Cape Cod section rescued two sailors who were cast-aways 
or deserters from the French fishing fleet, which then annually 
voyaged to this vicinity. Besides this voyage we have that of 
Governor Eaton and party, to explore Rodenberg or Quinni- 
piac in the fall of 1637, which according to a well sustained 
tradition was taken in an open boat through a Cape Cod 
passage. 

Among the records in the Lokas Kas of the States General 
in the royal archives at the Hague, Holland, there is deposited 
a chart of Long Island Sound, and with it a report of Adrian 
Block, a captain in the service of the East India company of 
Holland, showing his explorations of this arm of the sea, by an 
expedition from JN^ew Amsterdam early in the spriiig of 1614. 
With these a memorial was presented to the States General on 
the 18th of August, 1616, by the directors of the New ISTether- 
lands, praying for a special octroy according to the ordinance of 
March 27, 1614, which is referred to in the memorial as show- 



4 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

ing the extent of the discoveries made by Schipper Coriielis 
Hendrixseii, of Munnichendaui in a small yacht of eight lasts 
(sixteen tons) burthen, named the"Onrust" (The Restless), 
which the memorialists had caused to be built in 'New Nether- 
lands. 

This ordinance of March 27tli, 1614, immediately interested 
numerous merchants of Holland, and four ships were at once 
fitted out for exploration in these parts, viz : '' The Nightin- 
gale," the " Little Fox," '' The Tiger " and the " Fortune." 
The last two were commanded by the Captains Block and 
Corstiaensen of Amsterdam, who on arrival at Manhattan 
started out exploring expeditions upon the numerous rivers and 
bays in this vicinity, during one of which Block's vessel was 
by accident burned. Being a man of nerve, who never turned 
aside from obstacles, and of marked ability and skill in the 
numerous branches of his profession, he at once commenced 
the construction of a yacht of the dimensions of 4:2^ feet, from 
stem to stern (over all), 38 feet keel, and 11|- breadth of beam, 
and measuring 16 tons burthen, and in this (the first vessel 
constructed by Europeans in these waters) he proceeded late in 
the summer to explore the East River (Long Island Sound) to 
the eastward of Manhattan ; and we are told he sailed along 
the East River, to which he gave the name of " The Hell Gate" 
after a branch of the river Scheld in East Flanders, situated 
between the manors of Axel and Hulst. 

After making the passage of Hell Gate (which was then and 
has been ever since the terror of mariners), he launched out on 
the broad waters of Long Island Sound, leaving to the south- 
ward Long Island, then called Metoac or Serwanhacky (the 
land of shells), and following the north shore eastward, he 
sighted a river since named Hutchinson's Riv^er, in 'West- 
chester. This, history tells us, was once the abode of an 
English family of that name whose home was destroyed by 
Indians in 1643, They had settled on lands bought of the 
Dutch at Manhattan, who obtained it from Mr. Thomas Pell 
of New Haven for £500. It was near the houses of the family 
of Mrs. Anna Hutchinson and others, members of a company 
who were religious exiles from the Colony of Massachusetts 
Ba}^, who in 1633 took refuge in Rhode Island, and for fear 



LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 5 

that their home might become part of the colony of Massachu- 
setts Bay, removed to AYestchester in 1642. 

The islands of Stamford and Norwalk were also sighted and 
carefully explored, to which he gave the name of Archipela- 
goes, and farther eastward, and near the center of Long Island 
Sound, he discovered and located two islands, about the posi- 
tion of the middle grounds, now off Stratford, on which a 
lighthouse has been lately built by the United States govern- 
ment (to mark this danger for navigators). These islands, 
since Block's time, have been gradually washed away, although 
they have been seen to lie bare at low tides within the remem- 
brance of men now living and known to the writer. 

He gave them the name of De Kees, and as they are repre- 
sented as one island instead of two on a chart made by A. 
Yander Donck, in 1656, their existence then was certain. It 
is probable Block landed on these islands and located their 
latitude by meridian observation, and longitude by a system of 
calculations used by navigators of his day, which was not 
always exact, but accurate enough for all practical purposes. 

From these islands, in full view over the coast line, were 
seen continuous ranges of red colored hills, whose outlines and 
situation seemed to point out a large river, extending far back 
into the interior and a tidal harbor of great magnitude, invit- 
ing exploration. This lie accomplished and named the river 
Yenden Rodenbergh, now the Housatonic, which name no 
doubt was suggested by the appearance of two of our most 
prominent bluffs. East and West Rocks. As seen studding 
the coast range and viewed to the northward from these 
islands, over tlie mouth of this river, or from a vessel's deck in 
the vicinity, Stratford Point from this position might then 
have been easily taken for the commencement of the west 
shore of the entrance of the harbor of tlie Red Mountains 
(New Haven), which it is supposed he visited, and which he 
certainly named and located on his chart, the first one giving 
any detail of this section of the coast that we have any record 
of. This very appropriate name, Red Mount [Red Hills 
(English), Rodenbergh (Dutch)], to this section of the coast 
was no doubt suggested by the reddish hue of our guardian 
cliffs, East and West Rock. These great and noble additions 



6 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

to the beauty of onr city's landscape are of basaltic formation, 
and stand forth in bold relief, backed then as now b}' an inland 
mountainous outline, whose evergreen verdure added a striking 
contrast to their appearance. Their rich color coming from the 
red washes of centuries, mixed with the salt spray from the 
ocean, acting on their iron sides, as it is reflected by the sun's 
brilliant rays, while making its daily course, glorifies the whole 
panoramic view stretching out until lost in the dark blue 
waters of the beautiful bay, which ebbs and flows at their feet. 

It is probable that Block sailed up this harbor, and explored 
its shores in his yawl, leaving the " Restless " at anchor in the 
quiet roadstead off the Oyster Point of our day, which was 
then protected seaward by a dry sandspit covered with low 
bushes and other vegetation, now washed away and known as 
" The Beach." We judge from his report that his stay in our 
harbor was brief, and pursuing his voyage eastward he located 
numerous shoals and islands, two of which can be no other 
than Falkner's, which he named Falcon's Eyland ; and Goose 
Island, which he named Jan William Eyland. The latter is 
now just a-wash at high water, save a few rocks which mark 
its site, giving positive evidence of the gradual encroachment 
of the sea, and timely notice that Falkner's Island, with its 
conspicuous lighthouse must soon follow if not protected by 
some method known to engineering science. 

AVe will here leave the sturdy mariner to review the Verache 
Viervier (Fresh River now Connecticut), whose direction lies 
northward through the lands of the Mohicans and was ascended 
by him to an Indian village in latitude 41 degrees 48 minutes, 
N. Here he found a kind of Indian fort near the site of the 
now city of Hartford, called Nawaas, and here soon after- 
wards the Dutch of New Amsterdam built their fort of Good 
Hope for occu^^ation and trade ^vith the Indians. Having 
descended the river and passing out by the Race, he discovers 
and locates two islands. One he names after himself Adrian 
Block Eysland, and the other farther east (probably Martha's 
Vineyard Island), for his colleague, the captain of the " Tiger," 
Hendrick Corstensen Eysland. He fell in with him olf Cape 
Cod, and after exploring the Narragansett Bay, which had been 
visited by the above mentioned John De Verrazzan in 1525, 



LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. Y 

Block joined his colleague and returned to Holland. There 
these navigators give publicity to their discoveries ; and the 
" Restless " was sent l)ack from Cape Cod to Manhattan, 
returning along the south side of Long Island, whose length 
was then determined. She arrived before winter closed in, at 
her port of departure, Manhattan, having been the first vessel 
known to have circumnavigated Long Island; and the next 
year she was employed at Delaware. Of her farther career 
nothing is known. 

The enormous amount of beaver and furs taken in this new 
country bordering on Long Island Sound, which Block's ex- 
plorations had opened up to commerce, caused large numbers 
of fur trading merchants of Holland, who had depended upon 
Russia for their skins, to fit out ships for these parts, and it is 
quite probable the bays and valleys of the Red Mountains 
were visited by two or more Dutch vessels annually ; but we 
have not yet found mention of another vessel passing through 
Long Island Sound, so quiet did the Dutch keep their dis- 
coveries here, until 1619, when Captain Thomas Dermer, 
before mentioned, an Englishman who had been many years 
in the employ of Sir Ferdinando Gorges ; and who had sailed 
from England and loaded his ship of two hundred tons with 
fish and furs at Monahigan (an island off the coast of Maine) 
after dispatching her home to England, sailed for Virginia in 
a pinnace with an Indian pilot, who drew with a piece of 
chalk on the lid of his " boat-chest " this passage through the 
East River (Long Island Sound) and to the westward. This 
appears by his (Dermer's) letter written at Captain John 
Martyn's plantation (Martyn's Hundreds), on the James River, 
Virginia, December 27th, 1619, to his worsliipful friend Mr. 
Samuel Purchase (the chaplain to the Arch Bishop of Canter- 
bury) and preacher of the word at the church (St. Martyn's), a 
little within Ludgate, London. But as he makes no mention 
of our harbor (]S'ew Haven Harbor), we only note him as the 
first Englishman known to have sailed through the Sound. 
He writes thus : 

" It was the 19th of May before I was fitted for my discoveries when 
from Monahiggan (Maine), I set sail in an open pinnace of five tons for 
the island I told you of. I passed along the coast, where I found some 
2 



8 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

ancient plantations not long since populous, now utterly void ; in 
other places a remnant remains but not free from sickness. Their dis- 
ease was the plague,* for we might perceive the sores of some that had 
escaped, who described the spots of such as surely died. When I arrived 
at my savage'sf native country, finding all dead, I travelled a long day's 
journey westward, to a place called Nummastaguy,| ' where, finding 
inhabitants, I dispatched a messenger a daj^'s journey further west to 
Pocanoket,§ which bordereth on the sea, whence came to see me, two 
kings,! attended with a guard of fifty men, who being well satisfied 
with what my savage and I discoursed with them (being desirous of 
no velity), gave me content in whatsoever I demanded, where I found 
that former relations were true. Hereof I redeemed a Frenchman, 
and afterwards another at Massachusetts, who three years since 
escaped shipwreck at the northeast of Cape Cod. I must be brief (and 
omit many things worthy of observation)** for w^ant of leisure ; 
therefore hence I pass (not mentioning any place where we touched in 
the way) to the island which we discovered the twelfth of June. Here 
we had good quarter with the savages, who likewise confirmed former 
reports. I found seven, several places digged, sent some of the earth, 
with samples of other commodities elsewhere found, sounded the 
coast, and, the time being far spent, bore up for Manhiggan,tf arriving 
the three and twentieth of June, where we found our ship ready to 
depart. To this isle are two others near adjoining, all of which I 
called by the name of King James' Isles, because from thence I had the 
first motives to search for that (now probable passage), which may 
hereafter be both honorable and profitable to his majesty. When I had 
despatched with the ships ready to depart, I thus concluded for the 
accomplishing my business. In regard to the fewness of my men. not 
being able to leave behind me a competent number for defense and yet 
sufficiently furnish myself, I put most of my provisions aboard the 
Sampson of Captain Ward, ready bound for Virginia, from ^vhence he 
came, taking no more in the pinnace than I thought might serve our 
terms, determining with God's help to reach the coast along and at 
Virginia, to supply ourselves for a second discovery if the first failed. 
But as the best actions are commonly hardest in effecting, and are 
seldom without their crosses, so in this we had our share and met with 
many difficulties, for we had not sailed above forty leagues, if:]: but we 

* Yellow fever or Small Pox probably, brought by Europeans. 

f This was Squanto, whose home was probably Plymouth. 

X Middleborough, Mass., ten miles west of Plymouth. 

$5 Bristol, R. I. Forty miles westerly from Plymouth. 

II Massassoit, chief of the Wampanoags and his brother, afterwards 
the friends of the Mayflower Pilgrims, were probably the two kings. 

1[ Bristol. 

** This was a secret expedition probably in search of a mine, and he 
only mentions a passage without location. 

If He seems to have gone through a passage or portage of the cape. 

:j::t: Monomy Pt. 



LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 9 

were taken with a southerly storm which drove us to this strait; either 
we must weather a rocky point of land,* or run into a broad bay not 
less dangerous. The rocks we could not weather, though we loosed 
(luffed) until we received much water, but at last was forced to bear 
up for the bayf and run on ground a furlong off shore, where we had 
been beaten to pieces, had we not instantly thrown ovex'board our pro- 
visions to save our lives, by which means we escaped and brought off 
our pinnace the next high tide without hurt, having one plank broken 
and a small leak or two which we easily mended, and being left in this 
misery, having lost much bi'ead, all our beef and cider, some meal and 
apparel, with other provisions and necessaries, having now little left 
but hope to encourage us to persist, yet, after a little deliberation, we 
resolved to proceed, and departed with the next fair wind. 

We had not now that fair quarter among the savages as before, 
which I take was by reason of our savage (Squanto's) absence, who 
desired (in regard of our long journey) to stay with some of our 
savage friends at Sawahquatooke,:j: for now almost everywhere, where 
they were of any strength they sought to betray us. At Mono- 
mey, the southern part of Cape Cod,"' [now called Sutcliflfe Inlets] "I 
was unaware taken prisoner, when they sought to kill my men, whom 
I left to man the pinnace ; but missing of their purpose they demanded 
a ransom, which had, I was as far from liberty as before, yet it pleased 
God at last after a strange manner to deliver me with three of them 
into nay hands and a little after the chief sachem himself, who seeing 
me weigh anchor, would have leaped overboard, but intercepted, 
craved pardon and sent the hatchet given for ransom, excusing himself 
by laying the fault on his neighbors ; and to be friends, sent for a 
canoe's lading of corn, which received, we set him free. I am loth to 
omit the story wherein you will find a cause to admire the great mercy 
of God even in our greatest misery, in giving us both freedom and 
relief at one time. 

Departing hence, the next place we arrived at was Capaock (Martha's 
Vineyard), an island formerly discovered by the English, where I met 
with Epinow, a savage that had lived in England and speaks indifferent 
good English, who four years since, being carried home, was reported 
to have been slain with divers of his own countrymen by sailors, which 
was false. With him I had much conference, who gave me very good 
satisfaction in everything almost I could demand. Time not permit- 
ting me to search here, which I should have done for sundry things of 
special moment, the wind fair, I stood away, shaping my course as the 
course led me, till I came to the most westerly part, where the coast 
began to fall away southerly. In my way I discovered land,§ about 
thirty leagues in length, heretofore taken for main, where I feared I 
had been embayed ; but by the help of an Indian I got to sea again 
through many crooked and straight passages. I let pass many accidents 
in this journey, occasioned by treachery, wheife we were compelled 

* Bishop and Clark's Rocks. t Chatham, 

X Brewster. § Probably Long Island. 



10 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

twice to go together by the ears ; once the savages had great advantage 
of us in a strait, not above a bow shot, (wide)* and where a multitude 
of Indians let fly at us from the bank ; but it pleased God to make us 
victors. Near unto this we found a most dangerous cataract amongst 
small, rocky islands,! occasioned by two unequal tides, the one ebbing 
and flowing two hours befoi'e the other. Here we lost an anclior by the 
strength of the current, but found it deep enough. From hence we 
were carried in a short simce by the tide's swiftness into a great bay:J: 
(to us so appearing) but, indeed is broken land, which gave us light of 
the sea :§ here, as I said the land rendeth southerly. In this place I 
talked with many savages who told me of two sundry passages to the 
greatll sea on the west, offered me pilots, and one of them drew me a 
plat with chalk upon a chest, whereby I found it a great island parted 
by the two seas. They report the one scerce possible for sholes," (the 
Kill) "perilous currents; the other" (the Narrows) " no question to be 
made of. 

Having received these directions I hasten to the place " (Sandy Hook 
Bay) "of the greatest hope, where I proposed to make trial of God's 
goodness towards us, and use my best endeavors to bring the truth to 
light ; but we were only showed the entrance, when in seeking to pass 
we were forced back by contrary and overblowing winds, hardly 
escaping (with) our lives. But thus overcharged with weather I stood 
along the coast to seek harbor, to attend a favorable gale to recover the 
strait ; but being a harborless coast," (Jersey and Delaware Coast) "for 
aught we could then perceive, we found no succor till we arrived be- 
twixt Cape Charles and the main, on the east side of the bay Chesa- 
peake, where in a wild and wide road we anchored ; and the next day 
(the eighth of September) crossed the bay to Kecoughtan,'^ where the 
first news struck cold to our hearts — the general sickness was over the 
land. 

********* 

I have drawn a plot of the coast which I dare not yet to part with for 
fear of danger ; let this therefore serve for confirmation of your hopes 
until I can better perform my promise and your desire."** 

********* 

This Captain Dernier is frequently mentioned in the relation 
of Gorges and Smith, and his boat voyage was an important 
link in the chain of discovery, as it made known to the friends 
of the American settlements in Xew England, many parts of 
the American coast that escaped the notice of previous navi- 
gators. 

* East River. f Hellgate. 

X New York Bay. • § Looking out the Narrows. 

II One passage jn-obably the " Kill," north of Staten Island and Rari- 
tan River. 

^i" Between James and York Rivers- 
** See Purchas, v., 1777, 1778. 



LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 11 

He seems to have been employed by the Plymouth Com- 
pany, and is mentioned by them in a brief relation of the dis- 
covery of New England, 1607 to 1622, which also states his 
voyage to Virginia, and that on his return to ]^ew England, he 
met Dutch traders who had business with New Netherlands, 
and that he betook himself to his business of discovery, find- 
ing many goodly rivers and exceedingly pleasant and fruitful 
coast and islands from the Hudson River to Cape Cod. Der- 
nier seems to have been at Plymouth, so named by Captain 
John Smith in 1614, and called Patuxet by the Indians; and in 
Dermer's last letter he recommends this harbor to the Com- 
pany for settlement the " first plantation if they come to the 
number of fifty persons or upwards." 

Soon after the date of the last letter, Dermer visited Mar- 
tha's Vineyard and it is supposed he went there to examine a 
mine, as the glittering sands of Gay Head had led many to 
suppose that here was a valuable mineral deposit. 

Holmes' Annals says : — " It is probable that the second let- 
ter of Dermer was addressed to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, an 
active and eflticient member of the Council of Plymouth, and 
a special patron of the enterprise in which he was engaged." 
Gorges says that Dermer sent him " a journal of his proceed- 
ings, with the description of the coast all along as he passed." 
The object of his voyage may l)e understood from the fol- 
lowing statement. 

An Englishman of the name of Hunt, who commanded one 
of the ships with which Captain Smith came to New England 
in 1614, remained on the coast after Smith's departure and suc- 
ceeded in kidnapping a number of Indians, chiefly from 
Patuxet, afterwards Plymouth, whom he carried to Malaga, in 
Spain, and endeavored to sell for slaves. As soon, however, 
as the circumstances became known, sympathy was excited in 
behalf of the unfortunate captives, and through the benevo- 
lent efforts of the monks of that city, many of them were 
rescued from slavery, and found their way back to their native 
forests. Among them is said to have been a chief named 
Tisquantum, or as more commonly written, Squanto, who 
reached London, where he w^as received into the family of Mr. 
John Slanie of Cornhill, a merchant of the Newfoundland 



ReCElVED 




12 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

Company, and sent out to tliat island having learned to speak 
English. There he was noticed by Capt. Mason, the governor 
of the colony, with whom he remained until the arrival of 
Dermer, when he returned with him to England. 

The outrage of Hunt had excited a great mistrust of Euro- 
peans among the natives of New England, and it occurred to 
Dermer that the services of Squanto might be proiitably em- 
ployed in removing the prejudice fi-om the minds of' his coun- 
trymen. He %yrote to this effect to the Plymouth Company, 
who at once entered into his views, and the following season 
dispatched Capt. Rocraft to meet him in New England. But 
Dermer had in the meantime sailed for England, taking 
Squanto with him, and the company, desirous of availing them- 
selves of this aid in conciliating the Indians, fitted out another 
ship for a fishing voyage, in which they sent him and Squanto 
to New England with the hope of their meeting Rocraft. But 
on their arrival at Monhegan, not finding Rocraft, Dermer 
took a pinnace and left the fisherman to pursue their business, 
while he sought the native country of his savage companion. 
His subsequent adventures, until his arrival, are briefly related 
in his letter. The result of his mission appears to have been 
quite satisfactory to his employers, who in the published mani- 
festo gave him the credit of making peace between the savages 
of those parts and the English, of which, it Avas intimated, the 
colony of New Plymouth afterwards reaped the benefit. 

There seems to have been, however, another object which 
Dermer proposed to himself in undertaking this voyage. A 
few years before an Indian named Epinow, belonging to 
Martha's Vineyard, who had also been forcibly carried to 
Europe, came into the possession of Gorges, and induced him 
to believe that there was a valuable mine about Gay Head in 
his country, which he could discover, if sent home. A ship 
was accordingly fitted out for the voyage, and sailed with Epi- 
nov?^ and two other Indians in the summer of 1614. But it 
was a mere ruse on the ]iart of the wily savage to effect his 
return, and soon after his arrival in New England, he con- 
trived to make his escape from the ship. Notwithstanding 
what had occurred, Gorges seems not to have doubted the truth 
of the story, imagining that Epinow feared tlie consequences 



LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 13 

of betraying " the secrets of the conntrj ; " and when Dermer 
proposed to him to employ S(pianto, he consented without 
doubt for the purpose of again endeavoring to discover the 
hidden treasure. Some hints of the kind are given in his 
letter. 

The prevalence of a mortal disease among the natives of 
New England, by which the country within certain limits was 
almost entirely depopulated, is often alluded to in the accounts 
of that period. It is supposed to have commenced its ravages 
about the year 1616, and to have continued for two or three 
years. Dermer calls it the plague, from its desolating efEects, 
but writers seem not to agree as to the character of the disease. 

Dermer did not long survive his visit to New England, 
which was in January 1620, when he visited Plymouth, which 
was about five months before the " Mayflower " arrived. 

The causes which led to the navigation of Long Island Sound 
and the rivers and harbors emptying therein, we glean from 
colonial history. 

Gov. John Winthrop says, "A Sachem from the Connecticut 
named AVahginaent, April 4th, 1631, came and invited the 
English to plant on the river Connecticut. He promised to 
give the English corn and 80 beaver skins yearly." 

This offer the governor declined on finding that the native 
was at war with a more powerful chief by name Pekoath. 

Winthrop under date of July 12th, 1633, says, ''Mr. Edward 
Winslow, Gov. of Plymouth, and Mr. Bradford, came by boat 
into the Bay and departed July 18. They came partly to con- 
fer about joining in a trade to Connecticut for beaver and 
hemp and set up there a trading house, to prevent the Dutch 
who are about to build there. We thought it not a fit place 
to locate a settlement as there were between 3,000 and -1,000 
warlike Indians in the neighborhood and the river only tit for 
small boats and a bar at the mouth with depth of only six feet 
at high water, but the Plymouth people were told they could 
settle there if they chose." 

The bark '' Blessing "" of Boston was however sent to desire 
the Dutch not to build, a few weeks after ; and on Oct. 4, 
1633, the Dutch Governor, Van Twiller, informed them he 
had taken possession of the river in the name of the States 



14 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

General, and had set np a house there, having on the 8th of 
July, 1633, made a purchase from a Pequot chief of lands on 
the Connecticut river and built there Fort Good Hope, now 
the present site of the town of Hartford. 

In Oct. 1 633 the Plymouth Colony having a desire to hold 
the valuable river, sent Capt. Wm. Holmes and the sachem of 
the tribe lately dispossessed by the Pequots in a sloop laden 
with a house frame ready for immediate erection, to settle on 
the river at Windsor. He was hailed by the Dutch fort in 
passing and ordered " to strike or they would shoot,'' they 
standing by their ordnance ready fitted. Bradford, says Holmes, 
answered " They had a Commission from j^ Governor of 
Plymouth to go up y^ river to such a jjlace, and if they did 
shoot, they would obey order and proceed." 

In 1634 several of these river towns were commenced by the 
bay colonies, who made an effort to oust the Plymouth and 
Dutch settlers. This in time was accomplished, but in the 
meantime fearing tlie Dutch would hold the mouth of the 
river assisted by their allies, the Pequots, Lieut. Lyon Gardner 
who was employed by the Earl of Warwick and the Lords 
Say and Brook was sent with men to locate and build a fort at 
Saybrook in 1636. 

The Pequot war soon followed, and the extermination of 
that tribe by the Connecticut and Massachusetts troops, under 
Mason, Davenport and Turner. The latter, formerly of Lynn, 
Massachusetts, was among those lost in the Phantom ship in 
1646. He was the Miles Standish of the Xew Haven Colony, 
and on his return after the Pequot conquest acquainted Gov. 
Eaton with the advantages of the Long Island Sound region. 
The Governor soon afterward, in tlie fall of 1637, explored it in 
person, and left a company of six in a hut to hold the promised 
land, during the winter. 

The distinguished Dutch colonist and author, Adrian Van 
der Donck, LL.D., enjoyed tlie distinction of having been the 
first lawyer at New Amsterdam, where he arrived in a barke 
of the Patroon Kellern Yan Rannsselar in the autumn of 1642. 
In his history of the New Netherland, he mentions the East 
liiver, what is known to the citizens of Connecticut and New 
York as the Sound, while the East Iliver of our day is that 



LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 15 

part of this arm of the sea wliich readies from Throg's Neck 
(Fort Schuyler) to Governor's Island off the Battery in the Bay 
of New York. 

Of the East River (Long Island Sound), he says, 

" The river is thus named because it extends eastward from the city of 
New Amsterdam. By some this river is held to be an arm of the sea, or 
a bay, because it is very wide in some places, and because both ends of 
the same are connected with and empty into the ocean. This subtility 
notwithstanding, we adopt the common opinion and hold it to be a river. 
Be it then a river or a bay, as men will please to name, it still is one of 
the best, most fit and most convenient places and most advantageous 
accommodations which a country can possess or desire for the following 
reasons : Long Island which is about forty? miles in length, makes this 
river. This river, and most of the creeks, bays and inlets joining the 
same, are navigable in winter and in summer without much danger. 
The river* also affords a safe and convenient passage at all seasons to 
those who desire to sail east or west : and the same is most used, because 
the outside passage is more dangerous. Most of the Englishf who wish 
to go south to Virginia, to South River| or to other southern places, pass 
through this river which brings no small traffic and advantage to the 
City of New Amsterdam. This also causes the English to frequent our 
harbors, to which they are invited for safety. Lastly ; this river is 
famous on account of its convenient bays, inlets, havens, rivers and 
creeks on both sides, to wit, on the side of Long Island and on the side 
of the fast or main land. In the Netherlands no such place is known. 

But let us return to the continent. i^ Here first a bay discloses itself, 
(which some consider a river) called Nassau|| six miles wide at its 
entrance, which is obstructed by islands, and about eight fathoms deep ; 
afterwards it becomes narrower terminating as it were in a point, with 
a depth of four, and five, and sometimes nine fathoms, except in the 
extreme recess where it is more shallow. It is surrounded by a pleasant 
and fertile country inhabited by sturdy barbarians, who are difficult of 
access, not being accustomed yet to intercourse with strangers. At the 
distance of twenty -one miles west of this bay, there is another bay, 
divided by an island"! at its entrance, so that it has two names ; for the part 
on the east is called Anchor, and that on the west, Sloope Bay. The sav- 
ages who dwell around this bay are called Wapenokes,** thougli it is said 
by others that the western side is inhabited by the Nalucans.ff Twenty- 
four miles or thereabouts beyond we enter a very large bay,tt enclosed 
by land for a long distance, or rather by islands intersected by channels, 
of which there is a great number, until we reached the mouth of the great 

* Long Island Sound. f Of New England. 

t Delaware Bay. ^ The south shore of New England. 

II Buzzard Bay. 1 Rhode Island. 

** Wampenoags. ft Narragansetts. 

Xt Long Island Sound. 



16 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

river. There are also numerous small islands, to which no particular 
names have been given : navigators take the liberty of changing them 
arbitrarily. Near the entrance of this bay, the main land forms a 
crooked prominence in the shape of a sickle,* behind which an inlet 
receives a small stream, that flows from the east and has received its 
name fi-om our people, " Ooster Vievievtjen." 

Another little river discharges on the same part of the coast, which 
derives its name from a chief of the natives, called Siccanamos.f Here 
is a very convenient roadstead. Behind a small promontory there is an- 
other streamif that is navigable for fifteen or eighteen miles : here sal- 
mon are taken. The native inhabitants are called Pequatoes, who are 
the enemies of the Wapanokes. From thence the coast turns a little to 
the south, and a small river is seen which our people named Frisius§ 
where a trade is carried on with the Morhicans. Next comes a river 
called by our countrymen De Versche Riviere, or Fresh Eiver|| which is 
shallow and shoal at its mouth, so that it is difficult for small vessels to 
ascend it. Near the sea there are but few inhabitants, but within the 
interior of the country dwell the Sequins, •[ at the distance of forty-five 
miles ; the Nawes** are the next above, who cultivate the land and plant 
maize from which they bake cakes called by them leganicf f Wa-Ha-Ba. 
In the year 1614 they were defended by a kind of palisade in the fonn of 
a camp against their enemies in latitude 41 degi-ees 48 minutes, as I find 
it was observed by our people. Beyond live the Horikans. who are 
accustomed to descend this river in boats made of the bark of trees 
sewed together. 

Another river meets us twenty -four miles west of this to which the 
name of Red Hills^t has been given ; the Querepees inhabit its banks ; 
many beaver are taken here, since a demand for our goods has stimu- 
lated the naturally slothful savages. Twelve miles west an island^j^ pre- 
sents itself, and soon after many more ai'e seen, whence our people 
called this place Archipelago. |||| The bay is here twelve miles wide ; on 
the main reside the Suwanoes,^^! who are similar in dress and manners to 
the other savages. 

I have remarked that the large bay**" was enclosed by several islands, 
separated from one another only by small channels. These are inhabited 
by a race of savages who are devoted to fishing, and thus obtain their 
subsistance ; they ai'e called Matouwacks. The name of Pishers Hookf ff 
has thus been given to the eastern cape of this island which some con- 
sider the head of the bay. In the interior of this bay a branch of the 
great river:t:j::t or another river as others consider it, discharges, which our 

* Stonington, Watch Hill. f Mystic or Noack. 

X The Thames. t;- Niantic. 

II Connecticut River. ^T Middletown Indians. 
** Hartford Indians. ff Corn cake. 

Xt New Haven. t;§ Stratford Shoals. 

III! Norwalk Islands. ^11 Stamford tribe of Indians. 

*** Gardner and Peconic Bays. f ft Montauk Point. 

XIX Harlem River. 



LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPKO ACHES. lY 

people call Helle-gat, or the entrance to the infernal regions. The cur- 
rent of the sea setting from the east to the west, meets another current 
of the great river near an island which our countrymen called Nutten 
Island* from the great abundance of nuts which it produces." 

A^ain we find mention of our liarbor in the journal of John 
de Laete, director of the Dutch West India company. He was 
a native of Antwerp), but had lived at Ley den and was one of 
the most distinguished geographers of his day. Among his 
publications is a history of the Dutch West India company from 
its beginning to the end of 1636. 

On his passage to New Amsterdam, through Long Island 
Sound, he seems to have stopped at the Fresh River, perliaps 
in the year 1636. He writes : 

"From Fresh River to another called the Rodenberg (Red Hill), it is 
twenty-four miles west by north and east by south. This stream 
stretches east-northeast, f and is about a bow-shot wide, having a depth 
of about three fathoms at low water. J It rises and falls about six feet ; 
and a southeast by south moon causes high water at its mouth. § The 
natives who dwell here are called Quiripeys (Quinnipiac). They take 
many beavers, but it is necessary for them to get in the habit of trade, 
otherwise they are too indolent to hunt the beaver. || Twelve miles fur- 
ther to the east there lies a small island,^[ where good water is to be 
found." 

The spring in Falkner's Island is now just visible, and will 
soon be obliterated by the encroachment of the sea. The wri- 
ter was informed by Captain Joel Stone in 1880, who with his 
father kept the Light House on Falkner's Island in ISl'l, that 
there was then a never failing spring of fresh water on the 
west side of the island, but that the gradual washing away of 

* Governor's. 

f The reach in the Quinnipiac River between Stable Point and Red 
Rock. 

X See chart of New Haven harbor in 1845. 

J; The bearings of the moon at high water between two or three days 
after the full. We now have the highest tides. Three days after full 
moon in July and August our farmers begin to cut salt hay, as the tides 
then begin to fall off and give time to secure the crop before the return- 
ing spring tides. 

II De Laete gives exports of fux's from New Netherland by the West 
India Company of Holland, from 1(524 to 1635, Beaver skins, 80,182 ; 
Otter skins, 9,347. Value 686,527 Guilders. 

Tl Falkner's Island, probably. 



18 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

the island made this spring brackish, it being close to high 
water mark. This encroachment of the sea occasioned his 
father to sink near the Light House a well 90 feet deep, but 
finding no fresh water, this scheme was abandoned, and the 
spring dug out, stoned up and protected bj a sea-wall, which is 
now in the landing place, and was examined bj a party in the 
Yale Launch, Captain Dodman, July 20th, 1885. De Laete 
adds that twelve miles beyond Red Hills there are a number of 
islands, to which Captain Block gave the name Archipelago. 

He probably meant the Stratford shoal grounds, after which 
come two islands, i. e. Penfield reef, then an island, and Nor- 
walk Island, together. He then gives a description of his 
passage through Hell Gate and arrival in the Great River. ^ 

It is interesting; to note here the first mention of the tides in 
New Haven Harbor, and from observations made recently, the 
time of the highest spring tides has changed but little since 
those days, as we have generally the highest tides between two 
and three days after the new and full moon, which would give 
this luminary about this bearing. 

Hon. J. Hammond Trumbull, LL.D., says that Quinnipiac 
or Quillipiac was originally the land near the head of New 
Haven Harbor, and the estuary of Quinuipiac and Mill River. 

The name quinni-pe-auke means " long water land " or 
country. It is the equivalent of Kennebec (anb. kooenebecki). 
In the Mohegan and Narragansett dialect, the first syllable was 
pronounced " quin ;" by the Connecticut River Indians, west 
of the '• long water," " quit ;" hence the variety of forms under 
which the name appears in early records. 

The Dutch called the natives of this region Quiripegs. 
President Stiles of Yale College heard the name from an East 
Haven Indian, as Quiimepyoogh. Captain Stoughton in 1637 
wrote Quille])eage. Our late distinguislied fellow townsman, 
Eli Whitney Blake, LL.D., informed me, some time before his 
death, that he had been told the definition of Quinnipagee was 
'' the Five Waters," — viz : Quin (5), Aqua (water)— the Quin- 
nipiac or East River, the Mill River, the East Creek, the West 
Creek (runs now used by the railroads), ajid:^W^i,Riyei\ 

* North. /^\ \S\^ ' 




LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 19 

Off the West River was the roadstead, which was prabably the 
anchorage of the Dutch and English vessels which previous to 
163T were engaged collecting furs, and on Wigwam Point on 
the west shore, are still extant evidences of a landing. This 
was also the rendezvous of the little fleet which transported the 
colonies while in pursuit of the Pequot Indians, who were anni- 
hilated in Fairfield Swamp during June of this year (1637), and 
it later gave shelter to the fleet of boats and pinnaces which 
brought Governor Eaton's settlers to Quinnipiac. There was, 
in those days, an Indian village here on Oyster Point, as the 
name and oyster shell bank abundantly prove, and here the 
purchase may have been made and town site located ; there 
being a fine spring of water here, which was used as late as 
thirty years ago by a gang of Menhaden fishermen, some of 
whom are still living in East Haven. 

To the eastward of this roadstead lies the remnant of the 
former beach. It was constructed by the action of the sea, 
which has also distributed its sands so that the tide ebbs and 
flows over it, and two hundred thousand bushels of oysters are 
planted here annually, for sale in the Western markets. 

I find from a journal under date of January 5tli and June, 
1639, of the third voyage to New England of David Pieterson 
de Vries, Master of Artillery in the United Province of 
Holland, to erect a colony on Staten Island for himself and 
Frederick de Vries, Secretary of the City of Amsterdam, and 
Director of the Dutch West India Company, the following 
entries : 

" January 5th (1639) : — Send my people to Staten Island to commence 
the colony and buildings. 

June 4th. — Went northward with a yacht up the Versche River (Con- 
necticut river), where the West India Company possessed a small fort 
called huys de Hoop, and anchored about even in the eastern Haven, be- 
ing a large commodious haven on the North of Long Island. This haven 
is in the island, and is upwards of two miles wide. We found fine oysters 
there also. The Dutch call it Oyster Bay or Haven. We ari-ived next 
evening (June 5th, 1639), at Eoodenbtng, a fine haven, and found the Eng- 
lish were building a fine town, having already erected upwards of three 
himdred houses and a handsome church, * 

* Soon after this visit of De Vries, arrived the ship " St. John" Cap- 
tain Russell with the Rev. Henry Whitfield's Colonists and Mr. Geo. 
Fenwick's family, according to Rev. John Davenport's letter written from 



20 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

In the morning of the 7th, we came opposite the Versche Rivier. We 
went up the river, and on the 9th, arrived with my yacht at the fort 
huys de Hoop, where we found one Guisbert Van Dyck as commander, 
with 14 or 15 soldiers. This fort is situated near the river and a small 
creek, forming there a fall. The English had also begun to build there a 
town* against our will, and had already a fine church and more than a 
hundred houses erected. The commander gave me orders to protest 
against their proceedings. He added that some of the English settlers 
had prohibited them to put a plough into the ground. He said it was 
our land, that we had bought it of the Indians and paid for it ; but they 
oppose us, and had given a drubbing to the soldiers. When I came to 
the settlement, the English Governorf invited me to dinner. I told him 
during dinner that he acted very improperly in taking the lands of the 
company which were bought and paid for by them. He answered me 
that these lands were lying uncultivated : that we had been here already 
several years, and nothing was done to improve the ground ; that it was 
a sin to leave so valuable land uncultivated, such fine crops could be 
raised upon them ; that they had now already built three towns on this 
river, in which was abundance of salmon, etc. The English here live 
soberly. They drink only three times every meal, and those who become 
drunk are Avhipped on a pole, as the thieves are in Holland. 

June 14th. I took leave of the huys de Hoop, and arrived the next 
morning at the mouth of the river. We passed several places where the 
English were building, and arrived about evening at the Manattes, oppo- 
site Fort Amsterdam, when we learned the arrival of two vessels from 
Holland ; the one a Company's ship, den Harnink, and the other a pri- 
vate ship, de Brand Van Trogen, from Hoorn, laden with cattle, belong- 
ing to Joachim Pieterz, former commander in the East Indies for the 
king of Denmark." 

That a water passage actually existed tlirongli Cape Cod as 
late as 1717, deep and broad enough to allow boats and vessels 
of light draught and tonnage to pass, has been lately proved 
by the writer, by evidence obtained while searching in Lon- 
don the English archives. 

Early in the year 1887 in the British Record Oflfice, I found 
an old chart of the N^orth American coast, without name or 
date, which I have had carefully traced with India ink for 
publication. This tracing shows about one-eighth of the 

Quinnipiac, dated 28 y* 7th mo., 1639 to Lady Vere, then on a visit to her 
widowed daughter, the Lady Townshend at Raynham Hall, Norfolk. 

In this letter our harbor was named by the Captain the Fayre Haven 
and his was the first English ship we have any recoi'd of, as entering our 
port. The next was the '"Castle,"' and then perhaps Governor Eaton's 
Ship, the " Fellowship." 

* Hartford. f Haynes. 



LOJSTG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 21 

original projection. It covers the country from Cape Cod to 
the Renslow Hills. The latter are located on this chart about 
the position of the Highlands of Neversink in New Jersey, in 
latitude 40 degrees 25 minutes North, and longitude 73 degrees 
56 minutes West. The original chart, I judge, was constructed 
by a hydrographical survey party, composed of British naval 
officers, between the years 1715 and 1720. 

The chart shows well surveyed channels south of Massachu- 
setts, and about the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vine- 
yard, to the East River of the Dutch, or our Long Island 
Sound. Numerous notes in ink have been entered on unoccu- 
pied spaces contiguous to the objects of notice, mentioning 
matters of special interest about this river and the vicinity of 
the harbor of the Red Mountains, which I have gleaned from 
original, ancient documents. It tends to show that Cape Cod 
was formed from a long continued accretion from the sands 
which compose the system of coast between the Cape and 
Sandy Hook, and were deposited during the glacial age. Sub- 
sequently the drainage from the Southern New England rivers 
gradually separated these sands, forming arms of the sea and 
passages, through which the tides and currents of the ocean 
(spurs of the Gulf Stream and Polar currents), ebbed and 
flowed, imparting thereto a rotary motion, and changing a part 
of this East River of the Dutch to a sound, filling in some of 
these outlets, one of which would seem to have entered Peconic 
Bay, and widening the sound at its center by a continuous 
friction and agitation, as the washed away appearance of the 
bluffs on the north shore of Long Island abundantly illustrate 
its work. These changes prove that a stronger wind and tide 
power prevails from the westward, which is augmented by an 
increased water power from the rivers emptying into the 
Sound, and strengthen my belief in the theory that, notwith- 
standing a larger volume of water is forced into New York 
Bay from the Sound on ebb tide, or tide running west from 
Throg's Neck (according to the last gauging of the United 
States Coast and Geodetic survey), than comes into this tribu- 
tary via the Sandy Hook passage on the flood tide, the west 
passage (Hell Gate), has not the space to carry off all the 
accumulation, and that this surplus is finally forced out the 



22 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

Kace eastward on returning ebb tide. This shows the power 
that has washed away the islands of the Sound laid down by 
Block in 1614, such as the de Yeers (Stratford Shoals), Jan 
William Island (Goose Island), the Sunken Islands off Say- 
brook, the Valiant Rock and other islands in and outside of 
the Race, whose rock}' shores have been washed clean, besides 
the numerous banks about Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, 
all of which are no doubt the remains of former islands. 
These and the "tailings" eastward, which form the sandy 
points of land the whole length and both sides of the Sound, 
positively prove also a power from the heavy west gales of 
winter acting on the surface of the Sound, and from the rise 
and fall of tides, that has not as yet been accurately ascer- 
tained. 

The tides in our harbor are an important factor in the move- 
ments and scour of the port, and should be used for sanitary 
purposes. The tides are caused by the action of the sun and 
moon upon tlie waters of the earth. The effect of their influ- 
ence combines at new and full moon to produce the highest 
tides, called spring tides. When the moon is near the first and 
third quarter tlie effects are opposed, and the small or neap 
tides are produced. The nearer the moon is to the earth, the 
stronger the action. Consequently at the least distance of the 
moon (Perigee), the tide will be larger on that account, and 
consequently less at its greatest distance (Apogee). For a like 
reason the tide wiU be slightly increased by the sun's action, 
when the earth is neai-est to the sun (Perihelion), al)out the 
middle of January, and similarly decreased w4ien furthest from 
its Aphelion, about July 1st. When the moon's declination is 
greatest, either north or south, the tides usually have the great- 
est range of rise and fall ; that is, they rise higher and fall 
lower than at other times, and one high water of each day is 
higher than the other, and one low water lower than the other. 
The higher high water occurs sooner, and the low one later, 
than at other times. IS^ear the time of zero declinations in the 
two high tides of each day become nearly equal, and the times 
of their occurrence are near the average ones. While the 
range of rise and fall is the least that occurs, similar Init smaller 
effects follow the sun's declination. 



LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. '23 

This explanation, which is an abridgment from the United 
States Coast and Geodetic survey tide table, shows the causes of 
the tides, but the movements of this vast body of sea water in 
Long Island Sound into New Haven harbor is affected often 
by winds at sea causing an irregularity in the time of high 
water, as the lay of the coast impedes its movements. For 
example, after a long north and east blow, the tides in the 
harbors at the west end of the Sound (Cow Bay in particular) 
have been known to rise twelve feet (though the mean rise is 
but seven feet), backed up as it were by East River flood, and 
its force being increased by winds of great energy, shifting 
southwardly soon after the commencement of the young flood 
at Sandy Hook. This subject is a matter of the greatest im- 
portance to the residents of New Haven on account of sanitary 
and sewerage purposes, as well as to those interested in the 
wharves, bridges and the navigation of the port. The effect 
of this vast body of uncompressible salt water,* ebbing and 
flowing at unequal intervals, is very great, as the known 
density of sea water and its scouring effects on the bottomf 
(the fresh water arising to the surface) have so often 
proved. Some observations in the Hudson and Connecticut 
Rivers have shown sea water near the bottom twenty miles above 
the entrance of these rivers, where fresh water has been taken 
from the surface, fit to drink. In this connection should Ite 
considered the power of this great body from the ocean (flood 
tide) from the East, to hold back the surface drainage of rivers 
like the Hudson and Connecticut and our own Quinnipiac, and 
at the same time assist it to store its powers in reservoirs nuide 

* It is estimated that the aggregate area of the water passage to Long 
Wharf is about 6.500 square feet, but by wharves, bridges and other 
obstructions this area lias been decreased to about 3,200 square feet at 
the steamboat dock, which is a great disadvantage, and should now be 
remedied. 

t The tide gauges at Tomlinson's Bridge show that the flood tide of 
our harbor commences to run on the bottom about forty minutes before 
low water, slack, on the surface, and in the interval rises five inches. 
Nov. 24, 1885, the tide rose six inches over the new center pier at Tom- 
linson's Bridge, and was the highest tide recorded, there being a differ- 
ence of ten feet, six inches between the lowest and highest mark on the 
tide gauge. The extreme high tide during freshet time at Hartford is 
about 21 feet. 
3 



24 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

by nature for its reception, to be used on the ebb tide to scour 
the channel. 

In the ancient chart which I liave described, the south shore 
of Long Island and the coast surroundings, eastward from 
Sandy Hook to l^antucket are fairly accurately shown, and the 
south shoal of Xantucket eighteen miles south-southeast of this 
island in latitude 40 degrees 25 minutes North, and longitude 
69 degrees 20 minutes West, and lying directly in the path of 
ocean steamei's bound to the port of 'New York, shows a depth 
of only four feet (now eight feet), with a bottom of white sand 
and shells. It is not improbable that it contains the results of 
surveys and observations made aboard ship by a party under 
the charge of Captain Cyprian Southack, a Boston pilot, who 
surveyed Boston Bay, al)out the year 1715, as Southack channel 
is one of the points laid do^vn. I note the time of full sea, the 
day of moon's southing, to be nine o'clock, and the variation of 
the compass at Nantucket Island Shoals, 8 degrees 30 minutes 
West (now 1890 about 12 degrees). Soundings are given at 
10, 20, 25 and 40 fathoms, fine sand and shells, on a meridian 
six miles east of a line projected north and south from a point 
on a shoal of five fathoms, called the New Rose and Crown, 
in latitude 41.08 North and longitude 69.25 West, to a point 
on the Crab Bank in 35 fathoms stony bottom, latitude 41.42 
and longitude 69.30 West and distant about 30 miles. 

The Rose and Crown shoal, then (1T17) marked dry, has at 
this date (1890) twelve feet of water over it ; giving positive 
proof that the whole system of l)anks, many of which about 
this passage, the entrance to Nantucket island, are marked 
dry, locate the bases of former islands which have been used 
by the elements in the construction of Cape Cod by filling the 
numerous passages with their debris. A passage is plainly 
laid down through the towns of Eastham, Chatham and Orleans 
on Cape Cod, which was used in early Colonial times by small 
vessels and boats, making voyages from the bay of Maine to 
Virginia, and which is shown on the early Dutch and French 
charts, and on the one sketched by Schipper Adrian Block, 
the first explorer of the East River or Long Island Sound. 
This may have been the passage mentioned by Captain Thomas 
Dermer in 1619, while making his boat voyage from Mona- 



LONfi ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 25 

higan to Virginia, It is interesting to note that in this very 
passage was lately discovered an ancient ship, which was 
exhnmed by the action of the sea, from a salt marsh. May 6, 
1863, in the town of Orleans. 

Tliese voyages with the well sustained tradition handed 
down to us, from tlie Eaton and Davenport settlers, who came 
to Quinnipiac in 1637-38 in boats via a passage across Cape 
Cod, and the return of Rev. Ezekiel Rogers' friends from 
Quinnipiac to Rowly, Mass., the next year in a pinnace, which 
he sent to fetch them, give abundant proof of the existence of 
one or more such water ways, and it is corroborated by investi- 
gations of the late Professor Agassiz. These passages were 
closed up, as I have been told by Captain William Foster 
of Brewster, Mass., about 150 years ago, during a furious gale 
of wind accompanied by a tidal wave, which changed the 
whole east and south shore of the Cape, depositing in salt 
marshes and low lands, sand hills, 60 feet high, and completely 
washing away a sand point off Kausit, where to this day at 
extreme low tides the stumps of trees have been laid bare and 
visited by men now living. 

The discovery of this original chart has not only hydrograph- 
ical value, but has positively found for us one of the closed 
passages that tradition says existed in early times through 
Cape Cod, and sustains Gosnold's report in 1602, of its being 
then an island. It shows that as late as 1717 one of these 
passages remained open, by a marginal note, which I give 
verbatim : 

" Y'' place where I came through with a whale-boat, being ordered 
by y Governor to look after y" Pirate ship ' Whido,' Bellamy Com- 
mander, cast away, y" 36th of April, 1717, where I buried one hundred 
and two men drowned."* 

* Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, vol. 3, page 233, states 
that in the month of April, 1717, a pirate ship, the " Whido," of 23 guns 
and 130 men, Samuel Bellamy, commander, ventured upon the coast of 
New England, near Cape Cod, and after having taken several vessels, 
seven of the pirates were put on board of one of them, who soon got 
drunk and went to sleep. The master of the vessel which had been 
taken, having been left aboard with the prize crew, ran her ashore on 
the back of the Cape, and the seven pirates were secured. Soon after, 
the pirate ship in a storm was forced ashore near the table land, and 



26 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

But I will not linger on the subject of these closed up pas- 
sages ; as outlines are now visible of their course across the 
towns of Brewster, Dennis, Yarmouth and Sandwich (the latter 
the route of the Cape Cod canal now in course of construction). 
My object in referring to them has been to substantiate a 
theory for the construction of Cape Cod. 

I will now follow the navigable appproach on this chart to 
Long Island Sound through the waters of Kantucket and Mar- 
tha's Vineyard Sounds and what is called on the chart the " Sea 
of Rhode Island." The IS'antucket and Martha's Vineyard of 
our day are on this chart shown as six islands, illustrating how 
the wash of the past two centuries has moulded the shore. On 
this original chart, the numerous islands at the eastern entrance 
of the Sound are located, surrounded b}" rocky ledges, and at 
AYatch Point (Watch Hill) numerous ledges of rocks are laid 
down, showing the foundation of the now sickle-shape sand- 
pit extending therefrom into the Stonington harbor of our 
day. This gives evidence of its having recently been con- 
structed from the beach of the Rhode Island shore, eastward 
of Watch Hill, by a combination of forces that meet on this 
section of the coast. And here across the east entrance of the 
sound are given the names of numerous islands forming with 
sunken reefs a continuous chain, which must in the near future 
be used as a basis for sea coast defences and protection to this 
most important approach to the metropolis of this country, 
Long Island and Gardner's Sound having a strategic impor- 
tance unequalled on the Xorth American Continent. 

Of the many marginal notes on the chart I will notice but a 
few. 

The site of the Pequot Fort now in the town of Groton is 
called Lanithorn Hill, and New London is here mentioned as 
"a small river, but has a good harbor and farms, navigable for 
ships and small vessels. A place of great trade. They build 
many vessels here." 

the whole crew, except one Englishman and one Indian, were drowned. 
Six of the jirize crew who were saved as before mentioned, upon trial 
by a special court of admiralty, wei'e pronounced guilty, and executed, 
at Boston, November 15th, 1717. 

Levi Whitman says "At low tide the caboose of the pirate ship 
' Whido' is often out of water, marking the site of the disaster." 



LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 27 

Pine Island off the East point, and Bartlett's Reef off the 
west point of the harbor are located ; tide full and change of 
the moon at ten o'clock ; sounding outside, 25 fathoms of Blue 
Owse. At Winthrop Point is a sketch of Gov. Winthrop's 
house and the Governor's name is noted ; there is indicated 
beside a church and several houses. 

The Connecticut Piver is mentioned as being very long, hav- 
ing a great many line towns and farms on the several branches 
of it, and as navigable for small vessels. On the chart is added 
" Y® seaboard town to the river is Sherbrook.* The}^ build a 
great many small vessels here, and much copper ore mined." 

The Long Island towns are also carefully located, and in 
Peconic Bay, about the site of the River Head is written, '' I 
commanded y® first ship that ever was in this place, in 1692." 
As several anchorages are marked in this Ijack water, and a 
canoe "})lace" or portage laid down between this through the 
South Beach to the ocean west of Shinnicook, it is quite prob- 
able, that at this date there existed a boat passage which was 
used by Colonel Meigs m the Revolutionary War when he cap- 
tured Sag Harbor with an expedition fitted out from New 
Haven, and returned with many prfsoners without losing a man. 

Guilford and Branford,f on the Connecticut shore, are men- 
tioned as having small rivers, also good farms and both having 
churches.:}; These towns are shown as lying north of the "• sea 

* Saybrook. 

f Maverick's description of New England about 1660 says, " Tocott 
(Branford) — from Guilford to Tocott, 9 miles. These two towns are under 
New-haven Government. New-haven— From Tocott to New-haven, it 
is 7 miles. This town is the metropolis of that Government, and the 
Government took its name from this Towne, which was the first built 
in those parts : many stately and costly houses were erected here, 
and the streets lay'd out in a Gallante form, a very stately Church, 
but ye Harbor proving not comodius, the land very barren, the mer- 
chants either dead or come away, the rest gotten to their Farmes, the 
Towne is not so glorious as once it was. 

Milford — From New-haven to Milford it is about 10 miles. This 
Towne is gotten into some way of Trading to Newfoundland, Barba- 
dos, Virginia. So also has some other towns in this Government." 

l And here is noted Sachem's Head, which was the scene of the 
tragedy where Uncas, chief of the Mohigans, captured a pursued Pequot 
Sachem, and, after shooting him to death with arrows, cut off his head 
which was set in the crotch of an oak tree and remained for years 
after, the tree having grown holding it thereto. Hence the name 
Sachem's Head. 



28 LOXG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

of Connecticut " with the Hundred islands (Thimbles) and 
Falcons (Falkner's) Island off the coast. 

The Iron AVorks although in embryo have a special mention 
and are shown on a considerable river. These were the third 
considerable iron works and bloomery in America, The stone 
house of the Iron Master (John Cooper or Cowper), built in 
old* English style, is still standing in a good state of preserva- 
tion on the west bank of Stony River near the Stone Bridge. 
AYith the overflowing mill dam and red grist mill near by, 
embedded in green foliage during the summer, and backed by 
the brown faced evergreen Sal ton stall Mountains, while in the 
distance rises the graceful spire of East Haven stone meeting 
house, flanked by Ila\^lham Hills, this spot is one of the most 
picturesque and pretty bits of landscape in this section of the 
country. 

But we must not tarry here at this secluded spot but push on 
to the more pretentious harbor of the Qninnipiacs (or Isew 
Haven of our day). Here the chart notes the time of high 
water, IX* o'clock on the full and change of the moon, and 
opposite the harbor, which is only sketched as the entrance of 
a small river with rocky entrance, with soundings 10 fathoms, 
it says there are many good farms. It is shown on the chart 
as having a pretentious church and several houses. Directly 
across the Sound on Long Island, the village of "Wading (now 
Wading River), is shown, so called as it is navigable for boots 
(or boats), which can be towed inside by wading the river. The 
bottom of the Sound is Blue Owse, depth 20 to 25 fathoms, 
and the tide runs full sea at one o'clock. Milford, Stratford 
and Fairfield are all located as having good farms, while the 
islands off the Housatonic River, located by Block in 1614, 
marked Sand Bank, are now washed away save the dangerous 
remnant now known as Stratford Shoal, with 15 fathoms close 
to.f This demands more than casual mention, as they with 
Falkner's Island illustrate the powerful effects of the wind and 
tidal force on the shore of this arm of the sea, I have been 
told by the late Captain Moore, a noted ship-builder of Bridge- 
port, Conn., that he had visited early in this century at low 

* Qu.— Is this meant for XI ? 

f The new U. S. chart gives 27 fathoms. 



LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 29 

spring tides, these shoals for shell fish, and had observed sedge 
and other marine grasses growing there and had also seen 
walking sticks and canes cnt from a grove of scrnb cedars 
which stood on this island about one hundred and fifty years 
ago. The canes are still in the possession of some of the resi- 
dents of the neighborhood of Port Jefferson, Long Island. I 
have been told by Mr. James Park, purser of the steamer 
"Nonowantuk," of the Port Jefferson line, who was for ten 
years master of the Stratford Shoal Lightship, that in I860 
Captain Ivuenis, of Port Jefferson, L. L, then 75 years of age, 
told him he had cut rushes for caudle wicks on Stratford Shoal 
Ground. There is also a tradition to the same effect in Strat- 
ford town that people living there owned these lands. Henry 
N. Beardsley informs me that his father told him he had seen 
Stratford Shoal bare for six rods at low water. Captain Joel 
Stone once said to me that the Stratford Light House keeper 
told him he had walked forty yards on Stratford Shoal, when 
laid bare at extreme low spring tide, which occurred during a 
continuous west gale in the month of March. 

The site of Penfield reef and bar (in 1720 called Lewis 
Island), now marked with a lighthouse,* off Black Rock and 
Fairfield, is shown on the old chart as a continuous rocky 
chain. This serves to locate the most eastern portion of the 
archipelago (Norwalk Island), of the first explorer. Opposite 
on Long Island are shown the two points, Eaton's and Lloyd's, 
once part of the estates of Governor Theophilus Eaton and his 
kinspeople the Lloyds. 

Here Long Island is mentioned as having " fine towns on it, 
and on the west end many good farms, but towards the east 
end is much barren land, though there are some places where 
there are good farms." 

Huntington, Oyster Bay, Whitestone and Flushing on the 
island shore, with Greenwich, Mamaroneck, East and West 
Chester on the Continent terminate at Manhattan Island the 
description of this arm of the sea and its shores. 

At this point on the chart the north wing of the flood tide 

flowing from the Eastward through Long Island Sound, meets 

the South wing of the same wave of flood or Westward tide 

from the ocean via Sandy Hook between Whitestone and 

* Penfield Reef. 



30 LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 

Sands Point, having between one and two hours in time differ- 
ence (later) from their time of perceptible inward flow at the 
Eace and Hook, and there is a note " about x 1-2 o'clock," 
accompanied with this item : " Y^ tijde jparteth at Whitestone — 
then runneth East and ^Yest.'''' Here at Whitestone and 
Throg's Neck this arm of the sea studded with rock and island, 
and now called East River, passes through a tortuous rocky 
outlet or inlet, mingling its waters with an increased momentum 
imparted by the heavy pressure from the high sea through its 
contracted shores, into the Hudson River and the outflowing 
tide at Sandy Hook. 

In order to illustrate the movement of this tidal wave from 
the Atlantic Ocean through Long Island Sound and show its 
power to scour as well as its value for sanitary purposes for the 
rapidly increasing Coast towns, we mention the tidal movement 
AYestward from an imaginary meridian in the deep sea East, 
off the Xewfoundland bank, with a crest proceeding Westward 
on a meridional line until the North wing is retarded by fric- 
tion with the banks of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Massa- 
chusetts Coast, giving the wave line a North Easterly and South 
Westerly projection. As its South wing progresses west faster, 
having no obstruction on account of the deep sea (three miles 
deep) between the coast and Bermuda, it reaches sooner the 
abrupt line of soundings off the New Jersey and New Eng- 
land coasts. Consequently the young flood reaches the Jersey 
shore about Sandy Hook two hours earlier than at the Race, 
the Eastern entrance of Long Island Sound. It thus passes 
up the East and Hudson Rivers into the Sound, which tidal 
basin by the last ebb tide has been drained or lowered to the 
extent of several feet, when the East flood commences to flow 
Westward through the Race, meeting the Sandy Hook flood 
at Sandy Point or Throg's Neck, or East or West of these 
points as condition of wind and river freshets permit. The 
late superintendent (Prof. Hilgard) of tlie L^^nited States Coast 
and Geodetic Survey tells us that the condition of the tidal 
circulation through Long Island Sound and Hell Gate is such 
that, if there were a partition across it, the water would stand 
sometimes nearly five feet higher, and at others five feet lower, 
on one side than on the other, in the compounding of the two 



LONG ISLAND SOUND AND ITS APPROACHES. 31 

tides within a distance of one hundred feet. In H^ll Gate 
one foot difference in height is often noticed. This compound - 
ing process is completed by the accumulation from both floods , 
replenished with the drainage of the rivers, which volume of 
fresh water is kept back and on the surface, by the body of 
sea water flowing into the Sound near the bottom on account 
of its density. 

With the compounding of the two flood tides in Long Island 
Sound and their increased volume since Hell Gate excavation , 
added to the heavy freshets from the rivers and the tremen- 
dous pressure from strong gales which the United States Sig- 
nal Service shows frequent in this region, we have a reason for 
the gradual widening of Long Island Sound, and the disappear- 
ing of numerous islands and sandy points laid down on early 
charts of this coast. 

Having completed the description of this ancient chart save 
brief mention of some of the most Western Long Island 
towns laid down thereon, viz., Jericho, Jamaica, Bedford and 
Gravesend, also numerous small inlets for '' ye small vessels on 
ye north side," and a Ferry from the now site of Brooklyn to 
Manhattan Island, separated from "ye main by ye Spyten 
Divil Creek " (or Harlem Kiver), there remains only to make 
mention of the meeting of the tides of the East and North (or 
Hudson^ Rivers and their junction at Nutting (or Govern- 
or's) Island, connecting it to Long Island at low water with a 
narrow sand spit, over which within the past one hundred years 
cows were driven at low tide to pasture from Long Island to 
Governor's Island, and through which a channel has now been 
forced (by the encroachment of docks on East River), known 
as " Buttermilk Channel." 

Here at the meetings of these waters oft" the Battery of our 
day is shown the magniflcent upper and lower harbor of New 
York and southward Staten Island and Sandy Hook, and 
farther, still farther in the distance the blue waters of the 
broad Atlantic Ocean. ^ 

* A lithograph of this chart was published in 1891 by the U. S. Coast 
and Geodetic Survey, in Appendix No. 20, to the Report of the Survey 
for 1890, together with brief notes by the author of this paper. 



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